Barton County democrat. [volume] (Great Bend, Kan.) 1885-1915, 1887-03-10


quarian stone in the good old Town of
Rochester and discovered late that the
cross upon it was not quite so ancient
as the cross of Constantine. Like
Henry Thomas Buckle, Sir George
Lewis first became enthused
with theory and then set to work to
make history and statistics accord with
it. Yet even he could scarcely deny
that Martin Joseph Routh, president of
College, Oxford. lived his
century; nor that Lord Saint Leonards,
one of the keenest of English lawyers,
lived to 90. have only known one or
two centenarians, but l could put down
a dozen men and women whom have
been personally well acquainted with
who have nearly approached their CEN
tennial.
Prof Humphrey. of Cambridge, Eng
land, University, who bias made lon
gevity a scientific study, does not
theorise at all, but gives the numbers
as he finds them in some very interest
ing tables. He records the recent
deaths of eleven persons, two men and
nine women, who, out of fifty-two cases
in which the age |as a matter only of
current belief, were proven to have
exceeded one hundred years. One of
them was a hundred and eight, another
one hundred and six, beyond dispute.
OF fifty-two alleged centenarians.
thirty-six were women and sixteen
men. He attributes the greater ratio
of longevity in women to their free
dom from the exposures, risks and ex-
elements which belong to the occupa-
tions of men. That is, suppose, that
women stay more at home and drift
about less, though I doubt it, at least
so far as our country is concerned.
They are perhaps less given to over
eating and drinking. Out of thirty
five centenarian women he found that
twenty-six had been married and eleven
had borne large families. Of the
twenty-six who had been wives,
eight had married before they
reached the age of twenty. One
of them had married at sixteen
and two at seventeen years of age.
Prof. Humphrey found that twelve of
the fifty-two centenarians were the
eldest children of their parents, which
seems to contradict the popular belief
that first children are less hardy than
those who follow them. Yet this no.
ton prevails in racing stables, where
''firstlings" are not depended upon for
great endurance on the track. But
what is of more value is that this phys
iologist found the centenarians, with
out exception, to be persons of spare
build, which may be good suggestion
to the American Legion of Honor, al
though 1 could name many corpulent
Brooklyn citizens who are likely to
outlive any Barcelona" in our midst.
But Prof Humphrey says of these
happy veterans. that govt and rheuma-
tism were, as rule, absent. at
seems" says the professor, "that the
frame which is destined for great age
needs no such prophylactics, and en-
genders none of the peccant humors
for which the finger joints, as in govt,
may find vent" Of the fifty-two
aged persons whom he had investi-
gated, twenty-four only were tooth
less, the average number of teeth in
these centenarians being four to five.
Long sleep was noticeable jim their lat
ter days, the average being about nine
hours.
There is one precept or motto of
longevity which is superior to all the
rigid prescriptions of the doctors. 1t
is that zone mans meat is another
mans poison" and that every human
being who thinks life worth living
should drink and eat the things that he
finds agree with him. 1 know suf-
ferer from dyspepia-''the bag Dys-
pepsia" of Carlysle, whom James An
thony Froude calls without exception
the greatest genius of the century,
who can digest two ounces of new
cheese, two or three slices of new
bread, a glass of vinegar bitters
at midnight, and retire again with
two or three doughnuts on his
chest. If l did that 1 would have to be
moved to Flatbush, for / should, unlike
the jailer at Philippi. do myself harm.
Yet rules of diet are good and while
one big-brained man can stomach such
dinner rs the Gar of all the Russias,
Peter the Great, ate in England before
he babe q last farewell to Woolwich
dock-yard, the average human diges-
ton has its ''statute of limitations 1t
is said by some recent vitalists, whose
names escape my memory and who have
probably died ere this of their own the
cries of longevity, that no healthy per-
son ever died a natural death, because
death is always the result of violation
of sanitary laws. But what is sanitary
law and what is the capacity of the hui
man brain and body, whether for sleep,
for eating. for drinking or for work.
either physical or mental?
DIR. Forbes Winslow, the great Lon
don expert on insanity, has said that